Looking for a little extra summer cash? It might be time to dust off your old iPhone.
Some hopeful eBay seller is hawking their “rare” mint-condition, first-generation iPhone with only 4GB of storage — and all they’re asking for is enough money for a down payment on a house.
The original iPhone was one of the most painful purchases I’ve ever made. Not only did I have to slap down the $599 — just to see Apple drop the price two months later to $399 — but AT&T somehow weaseled me out of an extra $200 before the iconic device could finally be mine.
All that cash seems like a bargain seven years later, now that original iPhones are fetching upward of $15,000 on eBay.
Apple’s 4GB iPhone was only sold in the United States and was discontinued just three months after launch. With 6.1 million first-generation iPhone units sold in its first five quarters, the aluminum-backed iPhone is something of a rarity, but hardly worth as much as some first-generation iPhone prototypes, which have fetched about 10 percent of this factory-sealed iPhone’s asking price.
The auction has already received 46 offers, none of which have met the astronomical asking price, but if you want a backup iPhone, you can score a sweet deal on this other auction offering two original iPhones with twice the storage, for only $24,999.99.
Source: eBay
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
12 responses to “‘Rare’ original iPhone lands on eBay for $15,000”
hollycrap! nextym, i’ll buy 2 iphones, i’ll use the 1, the other 1 i’ll keep it. and ’round 10yrs later, im going to sell that iphone, brandnew, unopened. 100k pricetag! hahahhahaha
But that will not be a first version of iphone :P Now its time buy Amazon fire and keep it untouch for 10 years :D
yeah. but it will become rare still as time passes by. juz like the apple 2, not the first apple comp, ryt? hehe ☺️.
amazon fire? yeah, kinda nice idea, but i dont think it would get the rare/precious bracket.
Ok just because this idiot is asking this insane price doesn’t mean that someone is dumb enough to pay for this. Maybe in 20 years it will be worth that much but the phone is still to recent to be worth anything close to that much. try looking for sold listings for more accurate pricing information and try using the new gadget that eBay has.
It will NEVER be WORTH that much….
15k to buy an extremely outdated phone? What type of mongoloid would buy this?
not intended for everyday use. perhaps for collection, the level of rarity as time goes by.
What kind of person feels the need to use the term mongoloid in the year 2014?
Me. Better than using the alternatives, which are worse imo
The iPhone Original is practically the mother of today’s samrtphones, hence why people have the reason to collect this at a ridiculous price.
Wow, glad I kept my original iPhone and packaging then and its in mint condition, maybe when its time to retire I can ask this guy to buy it for 10K, knocking off 5K since it has been opened but its in such good condition (heavy sarcasim) ? Now I know why I decided to hold on to that original phone for a reason and all this time I thought it was more for the novelty of it. NOT… I can’t imagine even trying to sell that phone I have or this guy making this kind of money…. It’s kinda nice to have as a “remember this” item but really for that kinda money? wow… Maybe in what 30 or 40 years I “guess”
15K? wow, I still have an iPhone 8GB original unused, wonder how much that costs O.o